Executive Summary: It was the correct call, and people are still bitching about it.
Reading through the comments in this thread it appears that many posters have not watched the video of the play in question or even understand why there is a controversy. All the comments about how a foul is a foul and the refs should call the game the same way in the last minute as the first minute, are not applicable in this situation. Because, that's exactly what they did.
The reason there is a controversy is because, in this case, the refs did not swallow their whistle and refrain from calling a foul with the game on the line. They actually called a foul a foul, even with the game on the line and less than 1 second on the clock. Rather than bitching about the refs, you should be singing their praises.
All the "controversy" is coming out of Boston. They are bitching that while, technically it was a foul, it should not have been called in that situation. Because the call went against them, they are pissed that the ref did NOT swallow his whistle and let the foul go uncalled. Fans hate "situational officiating", but only when it works against their team (or in this case, didn't work FOR their team).
I have watched this call from several angles, in slow motion, and while there was clearly contact between Smart's hand (fingers, actually) and Butler's elbow while he was shooting the ball, it was NOT a glaringly obvious foul. It would have been an easy out for the ref to swallow his whistle, but he actually made the correct call and people are bitching about it.
As far as accountability, you better believe it's there. Ever since the Donaghy controversy, NBA officials have been the most highly scrutinized in the world. How many of you have read the
Pedowitz Report? Right, that's what I thought. Well, I'll save you some time so you don't have to read all 133 pages. To learn more about how the refs are graded, start reading at the bottom of page 48 through the section on Referee Self-Assessment that ends on page 52. And, keep in mind, those were the grading and assessment procedures that were in place BEFORE the Donaghy scandal.
Every call and non-call of EVERY game is recorded, graded as correct and incorrect and linked to video footage of the play by court-side observers. Every play is then reviewed after the games and the 10-20 most critical/pertinent calls/non-calls are sent to the refs, along with the linked video footage after every game. After they return to their hotels the refs have to review these plays, grade their own performance and submit a game report to the league office. In addition to these individual game reports, about 8 times a month, each ref has to do a "deep dive" where they go back and self-assess every call and non-call for an entire game.
All these reports, both the ones entered by the court-side observers and the referee game reports and deep dive self-assessment reports, are reviewed by the league office. All this data is fed into a system that grades referee performance. And, this is where the accountability comes in. If you are rated near the bottom of the pack, you lose your job. Unlike NBA players, referees do not have guaranteed contracts. Keeping your job from one season to the next is directly related to the quality of your work. That is the ultimate form of accountability - consistently make the right calls or lose your job.
And again, this report came out in 2008 and detailed the referee assessment procedures in place before the Donaghy scandal. Even stricter procedures are in place now, and advances in technology makes it possible to further scrutinize the "correctness" of every call and non-call of every NBA game.
The system also rewards the best officials with playoff assignments and the ultimate responsibility of working the NBA finals. Just to be eligible to work the playoffs, you need to have 7 years experience as an NBA official. To work the finals, you need 14 years of experience - and you need to be the best of the best, in terms of your game performance . Think about that. It's harder to become an NBA official than an NBA player (about 65 referee jobs compared to about 450 player positions), and harder still to make the finals as an official than as a player - you need 14 years of NBA experience to even be considered for a finals assignment.
Are the NBA refs perfect? Hell no, they are human and have to make split-second decisions in real time of an incredibly fast paced contest between the most amazing athletes on the planet. It would be impossible to call a perfect game, but when we as fans, have the benefit of slow motion replay from multiple camera angles, it's actually amazing what a high percentage of calls the officials get right. And, even when they do make the correct call (like the call against Smart), they still get beat up about it. They can make 100 correct calls in a row, and if they botch the 101st call, they care crooked bums that are out to get your favorite player/team.
There's a lot more that goes into being an NBA referee than just calling the games. There are official meetings between the crew before the game, the post game self-assessments, the regular deep dive self-assessments, they are tested weekly on their knowledge of the rules, etc. Their travel schedule is nothing like the players. They have no home games. Every game is a road game. Even when they work the playoffs, they never call two games in a row in the same city. The NBA publishes the game schedule a couple months before the season starts. There is no such schedule published for referee assignments. The officiating crew for each game is not announced until the day of the game. The individual refs don't even know their next assignment until they receive their plane tickets and hotel reservations, less than 24 hours in advance. They do get days off between games, but rarely have enough time to return home and visit their families during the course of the season. It's not a lifestyle many would chose and a profession few are good at.
BNM
